A Demon's Kiss ✔️

TWENTY TWO

Word Count: 1581

~Aspen

I sip my warm milk, staring into the fireplace.

"Can't sleep either?" I hear from behind me.

I don't turn around. Sleep has successfully evaded me, mostly because I feel out of my body. Oliver is somewhere, travelling between Territory Thirteen and One.

Even if everything in my head is muddled and out of place, that gives me a sense of amusement.

Kastriv sits next to me, stretching his legs out before the fire.

"I can't get it out of my head," I mutter, delving my fingers into my hear, pressing the tip against my scalp as if I can physically relieve the pressure coming from my mind.

"What?"

"Keo let us go. After everything he has been through with you, with Angel-bloods, he brought you to that apartment and he let us go."

I just wish I knew what his ultimate agenda is.

That's what makes him so dangerous, I realise. No one can see inside his head, and because he doesn't trust anyone, knowing can ever truly know his next move.

"He seems to see some value in me," I continue. "Even if it's a small amount. I get the feeling he doesn't want to upset me."

Kastriv doesn't look convinced. "Maybe."

I rest my head in my hands, wondering where across the land I can go so I don't have to see anyone again, where I don't have to think about all of this.

Problem is, everyone seems to be so good at tracking me down.

"Kastriv..." I break off, unsure of what to say.

"I don't want you near him again. If he thinks pulling something like that is amusing, I hate to know what else he would subject you to," Kastriv notes, shaking his head slowly, clearly unamused by whatever he is thinking up.

"He's arrogant, for sure. But he may help me reconnect with other Demon's, once he trusts me," I remind him, which has always been the ultimate goal, before him and I found out we are mates.

The last thing I want is to go back on this mission just because we have found out we are mates.

"Trusts you?" Kastriv frowns, narrowing his eyes on me.

"Yeah..." I break off.

"It's him that should be proving that he can be trusted. The amount of people he has killed..." Kastriv stands, beginning to pace.

I can see years of history between the two play out in Kastriv's eyes. His hatred for Keo isn't for no reason, but Keo's hatred for him is also justified. They are just on different sides of the law because the Angel-bloods were the ones who created it.

"But it's just because he's trying to save Demon's," I explain to them. Maybe if their relationship could become neutral again, the path to trusting one another wouldn't seem so impossible.

I know it's unlikely, but I'm not sure what other option I have.

Keo is the path to the Demon's. He knows where most of them are, and he isn't going to let me anywhere near them until he is sure I can be trusted.

"Those people didn't deserve it," he tells me, eyes blazing.

"I'm not saying they did. But it helps me understand him, to know how desperately he wants to protect those who have been hunted through all history," I tell him.

It's not as if I've forgotten who he is, what he has done. But if I had the power that he does, would it not be my responsibility to protect my people?

From what I've heard, it seems like Keo has sacrificed his life, his reputation for people like me.